Chapter 1478 - The Underworld (1/2)

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation  Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Ravaged by the demon hunters, the degree of devastation in the underworld was shockingly terrible.

The place was initially already desolate with eternal night shrouding the world for thousands of years. Poisonous water and lava flowed across the dark and cracked earth. The undead was everywhere, and life would end there. After the demon hunters raided and killed Hades, which guarded the place, the war left behind even more scars on the land. Powerful magic energy had torn and twisted the earth, which was already covered in cracks in the first place, so much so that it had formed into an undulating landscape. In between the ridges were horrible rifts, which bored through the entire underworld. Anything that fell into the cracks would drop right into the dimensional boundary and be shredded by the artificial dimension. The demon hunters had killed most of the undead creatures wandering in the underworld. There were shattered massive skeletons and flesh and blood residue everywhere. The outposts and guard towers used to monitor how the dimension destroyed when the demon hunters’ Sacred Flame melted thought down to be indestructible structures like butter.

Hao Ren and his team threaded the underworld carefully. It was now unstable. Hasse played the role of a guide by relying on his memories of the place. They had to circumvent the cracks that suddenly popped up from the earth. As the foundation of the dimension was collapsing, the land followed suit. Hessiana tried to fly instead of walk, but it turned out to be even more dangerous. The soul furnace of Tartarus had shut down, and the human souls collected by Hades had escaped. But these unburned, mindless souls were now floating in the air en masse, forming a strong energy field. Anyone flying too close to this energy field could cause a chain explosion and be polluted by the negative emotions in these souls. Compared with the soul-occupied sky, the crack-filled earth seemed to be a safer option.

After threading in the underworld for a distance, the group finally came to a dry riverbed.

Hao Ren stood on the edge of the riverbank, casting his sight across the darkness on the sloping land on the other side of the river.

He looked back down at the riverbed, which had only dried up not long ago. There was still stinking venom and mud on the riverbank, and the cause of the river drying up was plain to see: the riverbed had cracked open. Water had flowed into the cracks and straight through the underworld before disappeared into the turbulent boundary of the dimension.

Because of those breaches in the riverbed, Hao Ren and his entourage had to walk along the river bank and find a safe route that allowed them to cross to the other side. They were fortunate to be here not too late as the dimensional collapse was still in its early stage. It did not take them too long to finally find a safe crossing point, where they saw a strange boat stranded on the river beach.

It was a ferry built with fishing nets and bones of unknown creatures. The boat was full of fist-sized holes and cracks, even at the bottom of the hull. It was hard to imagine how the boat could float on water. On the bow of the boat, there was an ugly giant, three meters in height, wearing a tattered black robe but his body festered. The skin on his face had peeled off, and it was extremely horrible. The giant had a pole in his right hand with spikes on one end and one his left hand was a broken lamp. There was a silver sword with a sacred flame still burning penetrated his chest and nailed him to his boat.

It was the ferryman of Hades, Charon.

“So this is Charon?” Hessiana looked quietly at the dead ferryman for a while. Suddenly, a sarcastic smile spread across her face as she fished out two pennies from her pocket and placed them on the opened eyes of Charon. “It seems like you have finally fetched yourself across the river.”

A slight shock seemed to have disturbed the balance of the ship, which had long been decaying and only held up by magic. The boat, made of white bones and fishing nets, crumbled to the ground. Gold coins fell out of the crumbling boat and paved a path on the riverbed. Bones were also in the mix—they were also part of Charon’s collection.

As Charon’s decayed body fell on the beach and shattered, an uncountable amount of gold coins fell out of his skin.

Hao Ren and Lily’s jaws dropped to the ground. But Hasse’s face was emotionless—ahh, he was already face-paralyzed in the first place.

But Hessiana did not show any reactions.

“Oh, Charon, I know him.” Hessiana shrugged. “He might have been dead since I was little, but I have lived through the Mythological Era and gone through a lot; he was like a typically brutal and distorted god.”